Chris Christie: 'This is the moment' to fix state finances

John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerGov. Chris Christie answers questions during a meeting with the Star-Ledger editorial board today.
TRENTON -- Blunt and unapologetic about the consequences of his cuts, Gov. Chris Christie hit the road Wednesday to peddle his first state budget.

In a Bayonne firehouse, a series of television interviews and a meeting with The Star-Ledger editorial board, Christie made his case for immediate and dramatic changes to the size and cost of government and the pay and benefits of public employees.

He said an $820 million reduction in aid to school districts will force them to choose between "givebacks or layoffs" for teachers and other employees. He took on their union with relish, saying the "800-pound gorilla" New Jersey Education Association will also face a choice: "Do they want to lose members or do they want to reopen contracts?"

"This is it. We’re in the middle of a crisis, I’ve got everyone’s attention, this is the moment to fix it," the governor said. "My view is, I’m a Republican who’s been elected in New Jersey. If I play along the margins and don’t try to fix these problems, then I didn’t deserve to be elected in the first place ... I’m going to fix it or I’m going down trying."

A day after proposing a $29.3 billion budget balanced with widespread cuts instead of tax increases, Christie predicted the final budget lawmakers must agree to by July 1 will be "very close" to his plan. But he stressed he will not raise taxes on the wealthy or businesses to offset about $1 billion in other cuts that ruling Democratic legislators say unfairly hit the poor and middle class.

"I don’t care. I don’t care about this rhetoric. They send it to my desk, it’s coming back," Christie said.

Democrats and public employee unions were also drawing battle lines. Thousands of members of the Communications Workers of America planned protests across the state today, following demonstrations and television commercials by the NJEA.

NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said there has been some discussion of reopening contracts in districts around the state but stressed it "can’t be done unilaterally by either side."

"The message of the governor is, ‘Deal with it. I need your money, I’m taking your money, you figure out a way to deal with it,’" said Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), the state Democratic chairman. "And that is unfair not to the mayors and the council people and the board of education members, but to the people who will ultimately pay the bills."

Democrats will begin an intensive series of hearings on Christie’s proposal next week.

Wisniewski called it "clairvoyant," if not "presumptuous," for the governor to declare his plan practically passed on arrival.

He said Christie’s proposed "tools" to hold down property tax increases to 2.5 percent a year will not be in place in time for the budgets towns and schools must approve this spring — leading to layoffs, service cuts or property tax hikes.

Christie said it is "urgently important" for the Legislature to approve the tools as a foundation for property tax reform, saying classroom education, for example, will not suffer if teachers pay more for their health insurance. He also defended breaking a campaign promise by slicing property tax rebates 75 percent. Last year, he called then-Gov. Jon Corzine’s rebate cuts an attack on the middle class.

"The problem is $3 billion worse than it was when we were having that conversation," he said yesterday. "The fact is that we don’t have the money."

Christie’s early offensive looks like a page out of his mentor’s playbook, said Seton Hall University political scientist Joseph Marbach.

"Tom Kean pioneered the governor as pitchman," Marbach said, and Christie "has taken advantage of it."

Chris Christie: I don't care about getting reelectedA day after delivering his first budget address, Gov. Chris Christie spoke with The Star-Ledger editorial board about inheriting an $11 billion deficit and cutting spending at all levels of government, including school aid, municipal spending, pensions, and public transportation. (Video by Nyier Abdou and Brian Donohue)

Chris Christie on the budget deficit: there are limited fixes

Chris Christie on the budget deficit: there are limited fixesA day after delivering his first budget address, Gov. Chris Christie spoke with The Star-Ledger editorial board about inheriting an $11 billion deficit and cutting spending at all levels of government, including school aid, municipal spending, pensions, and public transportation. (Video by Nyier Abdou and Brian Donohue)